by Kevin Manahan, USA TODAY Sports

by Kevin Manahan, USA TODAY Sports

Is anyone really shocked by Rex Ryan's postgame meltdown Saturday night after his massive screw-up led to quarterback Mark Sanchez's shoulder injury and put the New York Jets' season in chaos?

Ryan, the lame-duck head coach, is now a lame-reason head coach. And before the Jets get any deeper into this mess Ryan is creating, they should cut him a severance check and send him home.

It's a long season. Do the Jets, for the sake of a few bucks, really want to this guy wearing their logo another minute?

Some guys can't handle the pressure of the top spot. Ryan has shown that. Some guys can't see the big-picture perspective of a franchise (which includes the offense). Rex has shown that, too. Some guys, like Ryan, are not a steady hand on the wheel.

Not everyone can be a head coach.

Some guys are born to be assistant regional managers.

In a bizarre postgame press conference, he justified inserting Sanchez into the fourth quarter of a meaningless preseason game by insisting the Jets wanted to win the coveted MetLife Snoopy trophy â?? you know by beating a team that has four of those gleaming Lombardis in its trophy case.

Oh, yeah, the Giants â?? despite having an often-crotchety, always-lousy-quote head coach -- have three healthy quarterbacks, too. (And a reputation as one of the most respected franchises in the league.)

After rookie Geno Smith had proven Saturday night that he is not ready to be the Jets' starter by throwing three interceptions and, in a panic, stepping out of the end zone for a safety, Sanchez had won the job by default. It was the result Ryan had wished for â?? because Sanchez, for all his faults and hairbands, would have given the Jets the best chance to win in 2013 and would have given Ryan the best chance to save his job.

But in an inexplicable goof, Ryan put Sanchez in the game in the fourth quarter, behind a line of scrubs, and the quarterback was hammered by New York Giants defensive tackle Marvin Austin â?? hit so hard, by the way, that Austin admitted he was stung on the play, too -- and Sanchez left the game with a shoulder injury.

Then he left the stadium in a hospital gown.

That leaves the Jets with Smith as the starter and a bunch of strong-armed gym teachers (who won intramural titles in college) sending in resumes. Because, while the Jets haven't announced the severity of Sanchez's scrambled shoulder yet, it's bad enough that they'll start auditioning quarterbacks.

Then again, Rex, you are what we thought you are: a defensive coordinator.

(It's in the DNA: His father self-destructed as a head coach, and it's unlikely brother Rob Ryan, another defensive coordinator given to creating headlines, will get a shot to run a team.)

When Ryan was peppered Saturday night on his decision to play Sanchez and how Ryan would fix the quarterback situation, he refused to answer and might have become the first NFL head coach to invoke the Constitution: "I can say anything I want," he said. "That's the beauty of this country."

God, bless America.

But, please, start with the Jets.

Then Ryan threw a tantrum: "I'll stand backwards and answer the question. I'm going sideways," he said as he pivoted his body. When the next crisis hits and he's cross-examined by beat writers, expect Ryan to stick his fingers in his ears, start humming and declare to the media, "You can't see me."

Ryan spent most of his time at the podium trying to explain how important it was to win a preseason game â?? even if it meant hauling his quarterbacks out on slabs.

As for the Jets' starter now?

"We'll make the announcement when I think it's the appropriate time," he said Saturday night.

The appropriate time is when the Jets get Sanchez's MRI results on Sunday.

And those results could seal Ryan's fate at the end of the season. If not sooner.

Because, for all the bluster he brought to New Jersey -- for all the promises of world championships and top-five defenses â?? Ryan is a guy who has been making boneheaded decisions for the past three seasons, and not little ones, either. He has shot off his mouth when he should have kept it closed. He has bragged when he should have shown humility. He has created back pages when he should have backed down.

If the new general manager John Idzik still wonders why his team is a laughingstock, here's a hint: It's the head coach, the carnival barker who keeps the calliope playing.

In the spring, team execs asked beat writers how the franchise could change the tone of the coverage â?? you know, to get the kind of respect the Giants get. Here's the answer: Get a head coach who will be taken seriously, not a class clown. Get a guy who knows quarterbacks.

And win a championship.

Most of the coaches and GMs who were kicked to the curb in the offseason had one shortcoming in common: They mismanaged their quarterbacks or never found one. Somehow, Ryan kept his job, even though he has shown he knows less about handling quarterbacks than A-Rod knows about natural foods.

Here's how we know that: Mark Sanchez, Tim Tebow and Tony Sparano. Which one of those guys is better off today than they were when Ryan entered their lives?

When the Jets needed a proven quarterback guru to develop Sanchez, Ryan traded for Tebow, the NFL's traveling circus, to mess with Sanchez's head, and brought in Sparano, the wildcat wonder, as the offensive coordinator. Sparano did the impossible: He made both quarterbacks worse.

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The Jets still haven't recovered. To fix that, they drafted Smith, who, no matter what the front office (or Jay Z) says, is a project and won't be ready for a while â?? if he ever becomes a decent NFL quarterback.

And now, just when the Jets appeared to have rehabbed Sanchez into at least a serviceable starter who could get them through at least part of 2013, Ryan screwed that up, too.

In the real world, when your boss puts you at risk and you suffer a major injury, you can sue. In the NFL, all you can do is beg for a trade or hope the guy gets fired.

But the big bosses (that's you, Woody and John) can take action. Because every day that Ryan stays, he damages the brand.

With Sanchez being X-rayed, the Jets, after winning 24-21 in overtime, sent out a tweet Saturday night: "We're bringing the #MetLife trophy back to Florham Park this year!"

Seriously, with an exclamation point. Thankfully, they left off the "Woo-hoo."

So, if the Jets keep Ryan around, maybe there's one more thing they need to do: Keep him away from the Twitter account.